Choe Thae Bok meets Italian parliamentary delegation
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- Choe Thae Bok, chairman of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, met and conversed with the visiting delegation of parliamentarians from the Democratic Union for the Republic of Italy led by Guido Folloni, member of the senate, at the Mansudae Assembly Hall today.
Congratulatory message to Finnish President
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- Kim Yong Nam, President of the presidium of the Supreme People's Assembly of the DPRK, today sent a congratulatory message to Tarja Halonen on his assumption of office as President of Finland.
The message wished the President success in his responsible work for the prosperity of the country and expressed the belief that the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries would further develop on good terms.
Reception at Yemeni embassy
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- Awadh Abdulah Ali Mashbah, charge d' affaires of the Yemeni embassy here, hosted a reception at the embassy on Feb. 29 on the occasion of the birthday of General Secretary Kim Jong Il.
The charge d'affaires in his speech said that the birth of Kim Jong Il on Mt. Paektu is a great auspicious event and joy not only for the Korean people but also for the world progressives.
He said it is under the wise leadership of Kim Jong Il that the Korean people are displaying indomitable spirit in face of the enemies' wicked and harsh blockade.
The relations between the two countries are now developing day by day under the leadership of President Ali Abdullah Saleh and Kim Jong Il, he said, adding that these relations will be expanded and developed in all fields in the future, too.
Yang Hyong Sop, vice-president of the presidium of the DPRK Supreme People's Assembly, in his speech said that the DPRK-Yemen friendship is a precious one provided by the great leader Kim Il Sung in his lifetime together with the state leaders of Yemen and today the peoples of the two countries are deepening the bonds of friendship, supporting and cooperating with each other.
He noted that Kim Jong Il always pays deep attention to developing the friendly and cooperative relations between the two countries on good terms. We will do our best to further consolidate and develop the bonds of friendship with Yemen true to the intention of Kim Jong Il, he added.
Paektusan Cup sports contest closes
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- The Paektusan Cup sports contest which opened on Feb. 4 on the occasion of the greatest auspicious February holiday of the nation closed yesterday.
Athlete Kim Ryong Chol of the Kigwancha Sports Group and woman athlete Pyo Un Suk of the Sobaeksu Sports Group respectively came first in the man and woman marathon race.
The Amnokgang Sports Group, the Pyongyang City Sports Group, the April 25 Sports Group and the Sobaeksu Sports Group won the basketball and volleyball games.
And players gave a good account of themselves in boxing, speed skating, figure skating and other events.
Satellite data processing technology perfected in Korea
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- scientists of the DPRK have put the method of processing satellite information on a scientific basis.
Those at the institute for system of telemetering and information on physical geography under the academy of sciences completed the technology of processing satellite information by Korean-style computer programme, thus updating the interpretation and processing of satellite information needed for development of the national economy.
They perfected the method of interpreting and processing satellite data on forest resources by computer, which makes it possible to put on a scientific basis the estimation of forest area by types, boundary and range of distribution of plants by species, growth of forest and right number of plants on right places.
They also newly defined the method of raising the rate of land utility to the full for grain output and development of stockbreeding. This method helps estimate on a scientific basis the area sown with seeds of varieties of grain, crop conditions according to seasons and harvest prospects.
Meanwhile, mathematical patterns and information processing method were perfected to testify geological features of the country and fields of underground resources on a scientific basis. As a result, the circumstance of the subterranean heat and position of spas and underground waters have been confirmed with new fields of various minerals such as coal and copper discovered.
In addition to them, those scientists completed the maritime analytical method from a new angle whereby to confirm marine resources and oceanographic features objectively and correctly.
Kim Jong Il's immortal feats in defending socialism
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- The revolutionary history of General Secretary Kim Jong Il shines as that of a defender of justice as he has firmly defended and glorified the cause of socialism with rare wisdom and outstanding leadership, says Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article.
The article goes on: Kim Jong Il's famous work "Abuses of Socialism Are Intolerable" made public on March 1, Juche 82 (1993) holds an important place in his glorious history because in the work he frustrated a reactionary "theory" of the enemy of the revolution with his farsighted wisdom and scientific logic and provided an ideological and theoretical weapon whereby to defend the cause of socialism to the end.
The validity and vitality of the work lie, above all, in that the Korean people, taking socialism as their faith, are firmly defending and glorifying Korean-style socialism. In the work he laid bare with scientific logic the reactionary nature of the imperialists' assertion that socialism is an inhuman society devoid of any freedom and democracy.
The work deeply convinced the Korean people that the wind sent by the imperialists and social democrats to allure people is a corrupt way of life, the way of seeking only personal comfort and luxury, the wind of liberalization intended to introduce the capitalist political mode and undermine socialism under the cloak of "democracy" and a counter-revolutionary trend designed to force people to give up their anti-imperialist struggle and disarm them ideologically under the watchword of a "new way of thinking."
The Korean people have further consolidated the single-hearted unity of the whole society under the strengthened party leadership when the imperialists talked about "democracy", and thoroughly implemented the line of building an independent economy under the uplifted banner of self-reliance, tightening their belts, when others went in for "reform" and "opening".
The validity and vitality of the work also lie in that it visualized a bright future to the revolutionary people of the world aspiring after socialism and encouraged them to turn out in a courageous struggle to revive socialism.
In the work a profound analysis was made of deviations manifested in socialist construction and their consequences, and the essence and advantages of true socialism were comprehensively clarified.
Brisk activities are under way among the revolutionary parties, progressive social organizations and people from all walks of life in the world to study and disseminate famous works of Kim Jong Il, including "Abuses of Socialism Are Intolerable" and "Socialism Is a Science."
An ever-growing number of the world people are aspiring after socialism, saying socialism is an ideal of humankind and a society representing its future.
Ro Chol Ho and his daughter welcomed
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- A Pyongyang mass meeting was held on February 29 in welcome of Ro Chol Ho and his daughter who have defected to the North Korea.
At the meeting a DPRK order was awarded to Ro Chol Ho and prize money and souvenirs to him and his daughter.
Vice-chairman of the Pyongyang city people's committee Choe Yun Sik in his welcome address warmly welcomed them in the name of the Pyongyang citizens, saying their defection was a due resistance against the South Korean society which has been turned into a living hell by the harsh colonial rule and corrupt politics of the U.S. and their stooges.
Ro Chol Ho in his reply referred to the honor of being awarded a state order and his emotion of receiving a large sum of prize money though he did nothing for the country and the nation. He extended warmest thanks to the great leader Kim Jong Il for opening a way of his rebirth and giving him a true life.
Experiencing and witnessing the realities of the north, he has been convinced more than once of the truth that the rise and fall of a nation is influenced by a leader, he said, and stressed:
Kim Jong Il, a great sage of Tangun's nation born of heaven and sun of a reunified country, is the national prestige and power of the DPRK shining all over the world, the happiness of posterity and the eternal heaven of our Korea.
He said he would hold Kim Jong Il in high esteem and do his best to bring earlier the day when they will enjoy happiness in a reunified country generation after generation.
Over 190 espionage flights
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- The U.S. lets strategic and tactical reconnaissance planes of different types fly for aerial espionage on the DPRK on over 190 occasions in February, according to the military sources.
"RC-135" strategic reconnaissance plane carried out aerial espionage on five occasions, an "E-8C" airborne commanding, warning and control plane on over 20 occasions and "U-2" high altitude reconnaissance plane on over 30 occasions.
KCNA on piffle of anti-reunification element
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- South Korean "Minister of Unification" Pak Jae Gyu in a recent "written interview" with Yonhap News talked nonsense that the north is, in fact, interested in the "engagement policy" though it is outwardly critical of it.
This jargon let loose by him out of abnormal thinking is a mockery of our principled stand bitterly critical of the "engagement policy."
As already known, the South Korean rulers' loudmouthed "engagement policy" is an extremely reactionary and criminal policy of confrontation with the north, the policy aimed at leading the north to "reform and opening" on the basis of "security" and finally to collapse.
As far as "economic exchange and cooperation", the core of the "engagement policy," is concerned, it is nothing but a foolish attempt to poison the people of the north and a window-dressing to cover up their ill-natured intention to invade the north.
It is the height of absurdity for them to assert that the north is "positively interested in such engagement policy."
This only betrays their foolish attempt to make the "engagement policy" workable on the north, come what may.
Bikini tragedy should not be repeated
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- The imperialists' moves for nuclear weaponization should be checked so as not to repeat Bikini tragedy, stresses Rodong Sinmun today in a signed article dedicated to the 46th anniversary of the H-bomb test committed by the U.S. in Bikini Island.
The article says:
The Bikini tragedy proved that the imperialists are the nuclear fanatics who threaten the existence of humankind and harass peace.
Saying that the U.S. is resorting to nuclear politics to repeat Bikini tragedy, the article discloses that it applies double standards in dealing with the nuclear issue.
Japan, the only country that suffered from nuclear calamities, is going to have nuclear bombs in contravention of its people's desire and to use them for overseas aggression, the article says, stressing that it should never be allowed.
It goes on:
As long as the imperialists remain and nuclear weapons exist in the world, humankind can never evade such causalities as the Bikini tragedy.
The world peace-loving people should unite and wage an active struggle to foil the imperialists' reckless moves for nuclear arms buildup and completely eliminate all nuclear weapons.
This is the only way of helping humankind get rid of the second and third Bikini tragedies.
Japan urged to liquidate past
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- Hong Son Ok , chairperson of the Measure Committee for Demanding Compensation to "Comfort Women for the Army" and the Victims of the Pacific War, yesterday issued a statement to the press, denouncing Japan for getting overheated in the anti-DPRK campaign, embellishing its criminal history instead of honestly apologizing and compensating for its past unethical crimes.
Japan illegally occupied Korea for over 40 years, reduced nearly 200,000 Korean women to sex slaves for the "imperial army," conscripted more than 6 million Korean young and middle-aged people as cannon fodder for the war of aggression and murdered more than one million people, inflicting heaviest mental, human and material damage upon the Korean people.
Hong Son Ok said:
The measure committee vehemently condemns with surging national wrath and indignation the Japanese reactionaries for refusing to liquidate their past crimes in the year 2000 and conducting a more frantic anti-DPRK campaign.
This is the 55th year since the defeat of Japan in the war of aggression on the continent.
We demand in the name of all the victims and their bereaved families and the whole nation that Japan take practical measures for liquidating the past this year, a turning point of history, as follows:
Firstly, Japan should make state apology and compensation for the past crimes.
Secondly, Japan should open to the public all the documents and materials of crimes and punish those responsible.
Thirdly, Japan should immediately stop embellishing its past history.
Fourthly, Japan should take state and legal steps to prevent the same crime as in the past.
The measure committee will wage a dynamic struggle of justice to make Japan liquidate the crime against "comfort women for the army" and other crimes of the past, intensifying solidarity with the organisations and public figures of different countries who value peace, justice, human rights and conscience.
GI's brutal murder condemned
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- Rallies condemning the GI's brutal killing of a South Korean woman were held across the country.
At the rallies of employees of the Koryo service administration bureau and Okryu Restaurant speakers branded the recent killing of a South Korean woman by one of the U.S. aggressor troops as a shocking murder which could be committed only by the U.S. bloodsuckers.
They emphasized that only a fight for revenge upon the U.S. for the sake of national dignity and honor is a way for the South Korean people to live and retake the dignity of the South Korean women and that the resistance against the authorities is the way for them to enjoy a genuine vital right.
All the women in the North of Korea will always extend positive support to the South Korean women and other people in their just struggle to retake national sovereignty and dignity, said the speakers.
Frantic war exercises
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- The South Korean authorities are getting more frantic in war exercises, according to a radio report from Seoul.
Army unit "Jingun" is performing war exercises by various computer programs.
Besides, they are planning to launch aerial surprise attack exercises in Seoul and a "drill to provide against local provocation" with infantry units of the army and other armed forces and military equipment.
End to GIs' rape and killing of S. Korean women demanded
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- A few days ago, McCarthy, 22, a GI of a unit of the U.S. forces stationed in South Korea, strangled to death a 33 years old waitress, her body covered with blood, at a bar in Seoul, touching off towering indignation of the Korean nation.
He committed this brutality when his attempt to rape her met a strong resistance from her.
This is another unpardonable sexual assault and shuddering murder disclosing the brutality of the U.S. aggression forces.
The rights of South Korean women are most savagely violated by the GIs.
The U.S. has raped South Korean women and killed them in cold blood over the last 55 years since their occupation of South Korea in September 1945.
There have been too many atrocities committed by GIs against South Korean women to enumerate, including "the incidents of cutting a woman's hair short in Tongduchon and painting a woman in Uijongbu and sexual assault against a child".
In October 1992, Kenneth Michael of the second division of the U.S. Army present in South Korea hit Yun Kum I on the head with a bottle, drove it into her womb and an umbrella stick into her anus after raping her in its Tongduchon base, Kyonggi Province.
Four soldiers of the U.S. aggressor forces beat down a 26 years old woman, when she offered a resistance to them, and raped her before throwing her into a sewer system in Taegu in August 1995.
A dead body of woman named Sin Cha Gum was found, undressed and her neck tied with electric wire in an office of a unit of the U.S. aggressor forces in January last year.
A GI James Perman killed Jon Ji Na and her child and threw them into fire.
Gis violate, assault and kill South Korean women, be they little girls, pregnant and old women, almost every day. This is the reality of South Korea.
The world public is now demanding the U.S. administration officially apologize to the Korean people and the world conscience for the GIs' hair-raising rape and murder of South Korean women.
Papers observe anniversary of March 1st Popular Uprising
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- Papers here today dedicate editorials to the 81st anniversary of the March 1st Popular Uprising, a resistance of all the Korean people against the brigandish Japanese imperialists.
The uprising was an all-people resistance and a nationwide patriotic struggle against the brigandish Japanese aggressors which was waged in every corner of the country and even overseas where Koreans resided with the massive anti-Japanese demonstration held in Pyongyang as a torch.
Rodong Sinmun says that the March 1st Popular Uprising showed the Korean people are the people with steadfast independence who do not want to become slaves to others and the brave and patriotic people who wage stubborn struggle against the aggressors without flinching from sacrifices.
The paper says that the desire of the demonstrators has been realized only in the half of the country but the outsiders' colonial rule continues in South Korea as yet.
The paper goes on: The Korean nation should get the foreign forces withdrawn from South Korea and accomplish the cause of the country's reunification to realise the national sovereignty throughout the country.
All the Koreans in the north and south and abroad should wage a vigorous struggle for getting the U.S. aggressors withdrawn from South Korea in firm unity.
The U.S. colonial rule over South Korea and the Japanese militarist forces' scheme for re-conquest of Korea have been intensified as days go by due to the pro-U.S., pro-Japanese flunkeyist treacherous acts of the South Korean rulers of the "people's government" and their policy of dependence on the outside forces.
Unless the reckless anti-DPRK confrontation and war moves of the aggression forces at home and abroad are smashed, the country cannot be reunified nor can the nation extricate itself from the scourge of nuclear war. All the Koreans at home and abroad should wage the nationwide struggle.
Minju Joson lays emphasis on the need to accomplish the cause of national reunification under the uplifted banner of national independence.
Withdrawal of Japan's "bill on prefectural suffrage" demanded
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- The Japanese authorities have come in for strong criticism in a signed commentary of Rodong Sinmun here today for working hard to adopt the "bill on prefectural suffrage" at the diet, while paying lip-service to "improvement of relations" with the DPRK.
This move of the Japanese authorities is a violation of the sovereignty of the DPRK and an unpardonable mockery of the national dignity of the Korean people, the commentary notes, and goes on:
The "bill" is aimed at forcing the Korean residents in Japan to abandon the DPRK's nationality and choose instead the "ROK nationality".
This means that the Japanese authorities have reflected in their policy the premeditated strategy of the South Korean authorities to split Korean residents in Japan from the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryon) and put them under their control and thus destroy it as well as their persistent demands.
The ulterior aim of the "bill" is to deprive the Koreans in Japan of their national identity and assimilate them to "Japanese".
If Japan is interested in the dialogue and improved relations with the DPRK, it should immediately withdraw the "bill" aimed at spoiling the atmosphere for them and halt its anti-DPRK, anti-Chongryon campaign.
U.S. crimes against humanity
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- Truths about genocide committed by the U.S. aggressor forces during the Korean war (June 1950-july 1953) are being disclosed one after another.
Over 40 cases of GIs' mass killings of civilians have been disclosed in South Korea.
The truth about the atrocities has been proved by documents of the U.S. national archives and declassified documents of the U.S. military and testimonies of GIs, who participated in the war, South Korean victims and witnesses.
The Investigation Committee of the Democratic Front for the Reunification of the Fatherland began issuing a series of indictments exposing only part of the crimes investigated and confirmed by it over the last 50 years. This committee was organized at the outset of the Korean War to investigate and record the criminal atrocities perpetrated by GIs.
According to the investigation, one million civilians were killed by them in the southern half of Korea in less than a year after the start of the war.
It was disclosed recently that over 1,140 civilians were massacred in Suwon, at least 2,060 in Chungju, more than 2,000 in Puyo and Chongju respectively, at least 800 in Thongyong, over 600 in Kongju and Phyongthaek respectively and at least 400 in Kunsan and Anyang each.
They killed more than a million innocent civilians in the North Korea. Their mass killings committed during their temporary occupation of some areas of it were unprecedented.
They brutally murdered at least 15,000 civilians in Pyongyang and over 35,380 or a quarter of the population of Sinchon county, South Hwanghae Province, in just 50 odd days. The number of those killed by them stood at At least 19,070 in Anak county and 13,000 in Unryul county of South Hwanghae Province, at least 1,560 in Cholwon county, Kangwon Province, over 1,500 in Nampho and at least 1,400 in Sonchon county, North Phyongan Province.
These genocide are the most blatant breach of the wartime law, the international law on human rights and the international law of humanitarianism.
DPRK FM spokesman on U.S. "annual report on human rights"
Pyongyang, March 1 (KCNA) -- The spokesman for the DPRK Foreign Ministry today answered a question put by KCNA as regards the U.S. anti-DPRK diatribe made in its "annual report on human rights".
The U.S. State Department in this report issued on Feb. 25 pulled up the DPRK over "human rights", commenting on human rights situation in at least 100 countries as it pleases.
What matters is that the United States does not bother to resort to such arrogant practices as arbitrarily commenting on human rights situation in other countries by "its own standards".
No one has given such right to the United States.
To speak honestly, the United States that likes to criticize other countries over their "human rights issue", and is, in fact, ill-famed for its poorest human rights performance and its most serious violation of human rights.
The United States which is not in a position to settle its serious human rights issue is imprudently finding fault with other countries over this issue while styling itself a world's "judge of human rights". This is a height of folly.
It is true human rights that all the members of society not only freely participate in the state management and socio-political life with equal rights but also lead an independent and creative economic and cultural life.
Under our socialist system guided by the Juche idea human rights are deeply respected, all the people fully enjoy true political freedom and rights and are provided with every condition for economic, social and cultural life.
It has become clear once again from the "report on human rights" that the U.S. hostile policy toward the DPRK and its ulterior intention to stifle the DPRK system remain unchanged.
The United States is well advised to mind its own business before foolishly meddling in the human rights performance in other countries.